In remote areas of the world, or with infirm patients unable to travel to hospitals, telecommunications have historically been used to attempt diagnosis over distances. In the beginning, voice conversations were held with physicians in an effort to diagnose a patient over a distance. But the diagnosis was often unreliable because the examining physician was unable to view the patient and their symptoms first-hand, leaving the accuracy of the diagnosis to the capability of the caregiver with the patient to relay the information with sufficient information for a diagnosis.
Improvements had been made with the use of image transfers over telecommunications lines. The images of the affected region—such as ulcers, lesions, or the like—could be electronically transmitted to a physician for review. But this method had limitations due to the inaccuracy of time records to track development of a condition. Also, image files would have haphazard naming conventions that failed to convey any meaning to those unfamiliar with the naming conventions of the primary medical provider. Another limitations of remote patient care devices has been the user acceptance to deploy the technology in the marketplace.
Thus, a need exists for an inexpensive device for capturing multi-media data for organization and transmission from a database that is portable with the medical community. Further, a need exists for a high-definition capture device to provide high-definition images for analysis. Also, a need exists for arranging the high-definition images, with pertinent date-time information, in an orderly manner that is readily accessible by a user.